WASHINGTON — Chris Hansen, chief-of-staff to U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, is leaving the office of the Colorado Republican to serve as executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, his staff announced Friday.

The move is hardly unexpected. Gardner this week was selected as chair of the NRSC and it’s natural that his top lieutenant moves into a position where he can run the day-to-day operations of the Senate GOP fundraising and campaign group.

“I’m grateful for Chris’ service to the people of Colorado, and I look forward to him assuming his new leadership role at the NRSC,” Gardner said in a statement.

A similar move occurred six years ago when Guy Cecil, chief-of-staff to Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, took a comparable position with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee beginning with the 2012 election cycle.

Two years later, Bennet and Cecil were reunited when Bennet became chairman of the DSCC for the 2014 election.

Taking over for Hansen will be Natalie Rogers, currently Gardner’s deputy chief of staff. “I’ve had the privilege of working for the people of Colorado for nearly six years, and I’m thrilled to serve them in a new capacity,” she said.

Mark K. Matthews is the Washington correspondent for The Denver Post. He’s covered Congress and the White House for a decade, first for the Orlando Sentinel and then for the Post. His past work includes two jailhouse murder confessions, investigations of the VA and NASA and a long, strange trip into the mudbogging world of Lake County, Fla.

The effects of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continue to ripple across Colorado, with businesses near Rocky Mountain National Park reporting losses and furloughed federal workers applying for unemployment benefits.